Paying the "stupid tax"

Maurice Clarett's lawyers met with two NFL officials on Monday to discuss the suspended Ohio State running back's future.

If NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue maintains his position, the professional ranks will not be in Clarett's plans for at least another year.

Tagliabue is adamant about keeping the rules concerning draft eligibility the same. The NFL currently requires an athlete to be three years removed from his high school graduation before entering the NFL draft. In other words, most football players are eligible for the draft after their sophomore year of college.

Tagliabue does not want to bend the rules for anybody, not just Clarett, and there's no reason why he should. It's not the NFL's job to babysit him.

It is tough to decipher how hard Clarett will pursue this option. As of now, he has only filed a request to be allowed in the 2004 NFL Draft. However, should the NFL deny his request, Clarett may have a good chance to win the case if he decides to sue, according to many lawyers and agents.

Clarett could win if lawyers convince a federal judge that sitting out a season would affect Clarett's future earnings. It worked for Spencer Haywood, who set the precedent for NBA undergraduates (and later under-undergraduates) by using that argument against the NBA in 1970.

But let's face it -- the division between sports as a business and sports as a game resembles a diagonal line drawn on an Etch-a-Sketch (I apologize if I have insulted real lines with this comment). It's not a black-and-white issue, and legal precedents shouldn't be treated as such, either.

Spencer Haywood cannot be used as a comparison. He left college following his sophomore year after averaging 32 points and almost 22 rebounds a game at the University of Detroit. He then signed with the Denver Rockets of the ABA and dominated the league, winning Rookie of the Year, MVP, and the scoring title.

After his first season in the ABA, he signed with the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics in 1970. The NBA opposed this signing, as it conflicted with a rule that stated that no player can be signed if his college class had not graduated. Haywood would have been a senior in 1970, and thus could not be declared eligible.

Haywood took the NBA to court and won. As the only wage earner in his struggling family, the Supreme Court ruled Haywood a "hardship case," and was allowed to make a living in the NBA.

Not only did Haywood have to support a struggling family, but he had a year of professional basketball under his belt in the ABA -- he couldn't go back to college even if he had the desire.

The "hardship case" eventually gave way to the Early Entry system, in which a player can forgo the rest of his college eligibility as long as he notifies the office 45 days before the draft. The Early Entry system is still used today.

So instead of only accepting college players that have nothing more to prove at the college level, the NBA is now a safe haven for athletes who are anti-learning. As a result, the quality of play has diminished along with the fan base.

Why would the NFL make the same mistake?

Clarett is no Haywood. Legal troubles are the only reason Clarett is considering the NFL in the first place. Had Clarett not been suspended for a year by lying to investigators about a theft and receiving various illegal benefits, he'd be helping the Buckeyes in their national title defense.

Clarett's year -- 1,237 yards, 18 TDs -- set Ohio State freshman records, but those numbers don't look like a 30-20 average in basketball. Darnell Autry had better numbers at Northwestern and found minimal success in the NFL. Rashaan Salaam cleared 2,000 yards in a season and won the Heisman, but fumbled his way out of professional football.

Clarett has more athletic talent than either of them, and if he had not missed a significant amount of action to injury, his final numbers would look a lot more impressive. But, simply put, nobody knows how capable Clarett really is, and that's precisely the purpose of another year of college.

And unlike Haywood, who had been playing professional basketball to support a family, Clarett is just a student. Although it's possible that he could support a middle-class family of four with the help of boosters, it's not a bona fide, taxable salary.

Now if Clarett wanted to go to the CFL straight out of high school, procreate and excel north of the border and then enter the NFL, it might be a different story.

If the NFL allows one-year wonders (and high school phenoms later on), the NFL Draft will turn into a complete crapshoot not unlike the NBA. Will teams be getting a Kevin Garnett or a Kwame Brown? When the threat of a Ryan Leaf-like bust is on the horizon of every NFL Draft, why would the NFL want to jeopardize the quality of its product by letting in athletes that it perceives to be under-qualified?

Furthermore, if the courts rule Clarett eligible for the NFL draft, they're allowing him to shirk responsibility for his own actions. The NFL isn't liable for his loss of future earnings -- he is. It is nobody's fault but his own that he's losing a year of football experience.

Clarett's case isn't one of hardship; it's one of stupidity. He screwed up his own path to NFL stardom. The NFL shouldn't have to pay for it.